On 23rd September 2011, guests at the Tarhi Tented Lodge in Tsavo East National Park awoke to a wild drama. A baby elephant had become trapped in a waterhole, its increasingly distressed mother trying desperately to extract the baby. After a time other members of the herd headed off, deterred by the increasing number of guests appearing nearby. The mother though held firm, unwilling to abandon her offspring.

Wild black rhinos were declared extinct, according to the latest assessment by experts at a leading conservation group. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said the western black rhino, native to West Africa, no longer exists and claimed that a quarter of all other mammal species are at risk of extinction.